Consumer Centric Marketing Expertise

May 31, 2024

The Kirin Group's marketing policies and their strengths and characteristics

In spring 2022, we established the Marketing Central Team at Kirin Holdings to oversee the marketing functions of various operating companies and manage marketing efforts for the entire Kirin Group. By consolidating the marketing functions of each operating company, we aimed to strengthen our consumer-centric marketing capabilities and drive transformation through rapid decision-making and effective execution in response to environmental changes.

Furthermore, we are making steady efforts by prioritizing the consumer, identifying potential needs and wants, and establishing opportunities as follows to further strengthen our consumer-centric marketing capabilities.

• Raise our "ability to understand customers," which is the foundation of CSV management, to an event higher level throughout the Group
• Create marketing capabilities in new business domains
• Develop and utilize human capital across the Group for the future
• Provide support in resolving operating companies' challenges and create collaboration across the Group

Issues and progress since last year

We are steadily promoting the expansion of the Health Science domain, one of the material issues in our Kirin Group 2022–2024 Medium-Term Business Plan (MTBP), by combining marketing capabilities across operating companies. A prime example of these efforts is our Lactococcus lactis strain plasma (LC-Plasma), a proprietary material of the Kirin Group that supports the maintenance of immune functions in healthy people that is contained in many products, such as our Kirin Oishii Immune Care series, Kirin iMUSE supplement series, Koiwai iMUSE Yogurt series, and FANCL CORPORATION’s Meneki Support products. 

The Kirin Group is aiming to improve our reliability and favorability by being recognized as a company that is contributing to the mental and physical health of our consumers and to creating a better society. However, as the insufficient awareness of the Kirin Group as a Group that supports physical health remains to be an issue, we must help more consumers to understand the importance of immune care and to make a habit of purchasing LC-Plasma functional food products. For this, we are required to develop a new form of communication.

Additionally, the Kirin Group has promoted both corporate-level action and communication, believing them both to be essential to bring awareness of the Group’s serious efforts in health to more consumers.

Strategy and initiatives

To address these issues, the Marketing Central Team not only supports Kirin Group’s operating companies but also takes on the challenge of corporate brand management. Of all the team’s initiatives, one of priority is the enhancement of the Kirin Group’s image of physical health. Beginning with the Kirin Oishii Immune Care series, the Group aims to improve results using new marketing that promotes communication of both the brand of LC-Plasma functional food products and the corporate brand and that remains in people’s minds. Progress is also being made in initiatives aimed at growing each operating company, and results are beginning to be seen, such as the renewal of KIRIN ICHIBAN Zero Sugar and the expansion of Lion’s focus brands.

Example

Enhancing the image as a company dedicated to promoting health to improve value of the KIRIN brand

In May 2023, we began the Genki na Meneki (immune care) Project as a public-private partnership project. Chico-chan, the nationally popular mascot from NHK’s “Chico-chan ni Shikarareru!” (Chico Will Scold You!) , shares the importance of immune care in various areas of life nationwide while wearing light-blue clothes.

As part of the project, we launched the Zenkoku Touitsu Meneki Taisaku (immune care) Test online and on advertisements in public transit in November 2023 in preparation for winter, a time in which health management is crucial. This created opportunities for consumers that were previously hard to reach to learn about immune care.

Furthermore, in order to embody our commitment to being a company that takes the health of our consumers seriously, the Kirin Group started taking action at the corporate level to spread awareness of immune care in April 2023. This action, following the concept of “We want to protect the health of those who protect ours,” contributes to promoting the health of people engaged in work that supports the health of others, such as childcare nurses and midwives, by providing them with immune care products. For example, as part of this project, which began after asking “What can we do to support midwives?” we established an immune care support vendor at Aiwa Hospital (Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture). 

This series of initiatives was aired to share the message “You become happy. Then, the world will be that much better” as a new midwife edition corporate commercial in December 2023.

Commercials and digital communication that communicate our corporation’s position enhance the Kirin Group’s image of physical health and cultivate sympathy and trust. Sales of the LC-Plasma series in 2023 increased by approximately 40% year on year, achieving our target of 20 billion yen thanks to the marketing activities at operating companies, in addition to creating the need for immune care through the above initiatives.

We have also confirmed that more exposure to commercials has improved the health image of the Kirin Group brand. According to a consumer survey on our corporate image more than 10 years ago, the main image of our company was beer; however, a recent survey has indicated that, in addition to beer and beverages, more consumers associate us with an image of immune care, LC-Plasma, and other physical health-related images, which means we are steadily acquiring the corporate image we want.

Going forward, we will continue to aim to realize a society in which people can live happily, healthily, and vigorously, expand our lineup of LC-Plasma functional food products, and evolve initiatives to help more consumers understand the importance of immune care. We will also communicate to enhance the image of us as a corporation that takes the health of our consumers seriously and improve the value of the KIRIN brand.